Think twice before tossing that butt!

The Franklin County Health Department is hosting a Florida Health Cleans Up! Initiative in Franklin County today as a way to celebrate earth day and to draw attention to the problem of cigarette butts.

At 2:00 this afternoon Health department staff and Apalachicola Bay Charter School SWAT participants will adopt a highway on Hwy 98 and 12^th street in Apalachicola where they will be picking up cigarette butts and litter along the road.  

They hope people, especially smokers, will see them at work and consider what they can do to help the environment – including quitting tobacco use.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, adding nearly 1.7 million pounds of toxic litter each year.    

Cigarette butts are not biodegradable and can stay in the environment for more than a decade;

Many end up in storm drains where they get carried into streams, rivers and oceans.

In 2014, nearly 230 thousand cigarette butts were picked up on beaches throughout Florida in a single day.   

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